Seth_Rogue_One
A missed opportunity here with the dutch movie Sint aka Saint.A horror-movie about an evil Santa is nothing new but this one turns it into more of a spooky creature type of movie, who's for the more-part of the movie kept in the background and only shows up when he's gonna slay some new victims.The kills overall though aren't all that satisfying and many scenes just ends with hints of the people dying in the scene and stuff leaving the rest of the scenes for the imagination of the viewer.There's also way too much focus on police doing a bad job investigating and stuff, there's about as much police-work without the killer Santa than there is actual scenes with him. And come on, no one watches this as a crime movie or a mystery, we already know from the gate who's responsible so what's the point? It's not all bad though, the movie looks rather neat and the acting isn't terrible and it had all the potential to become an enjoyable b- movie but it just doesn't deliver the goods and get boring a lot, especially in the second half where you expect the action to finally kick off but doesn't.Oh and the killer Santa doesn't actually talk so don't expect him to ask if you've been naughty or nice, but I guess this Santa doesn't really care either way anyway.
Sandcooler
Storywise "Sint" is kind of a rip-off of the killer Santa classic "Silent Night, Deadly Night", but the comparisons end there. While the latter is only still around because it's laughably bad, this one has actual redeeming features like a dark, moody atmosphere and a little bit of humour at exactly the right times. Writer/Director Dick Maas loves to toy with our expectations and every guess you'll make about the story developments will probably be wrong. For instance, you think tremendous hottie Caro Lenssen will serve as the Laurie Strode of this story and the finale will be her fighting off the unstoppable villain, but in fact she barely comes into play in the rest of the story (unfortunately...). Our final girls are an old drunk and a sex-crazed teenage boy, that's pretty creative to say the least. The production values of this movie are also surprisingly high. For a movie that "only" cost four million to make, the effects look pretty amazing. The killings are just relentlessly gory, Dick Maas definitely burned the candle on both ends to disgust his audience. "Sint" is one of those rare horror comedies that manage to be both scary and funny, most can't even get one of the two right. A thrilling ride.
Knoedelkop
Sint (or Saint in English) seemed to me like a promising concept, especially as it is about one of the most popular traditions in both Belgium and the Netherlands. A murderous Sint Nikolaas, roaming around Amsterdam looking for people to kill: nothing deep, but it could make up a nice movie for a lazy afternoon. Nothing is less true than that. The acting is terrible, the camera-work isn't special, the storyline is non existent, make-up is average and the action scenes are only so so. The rooftop chase with our bishop is the most exciting part of the movie, but it lasts for about two minutes... And after the chase it's back to dragging yourself to the end of the movie, which even leaves room for a sequel (but it's not entirely clear whether this is intended as a final scary moment). Even with the knowledge that Sint was never intended as a deep philosophical movie but as pure action based horror, it doesn't come close to achieving it's goal. The combination of terrible and average scoring parameters stands in the way of even only the slightest hint of excitement and fear. Don't watch this, unless you're still interested in Sint Nikolaas...
Mark Vessey
In an era of the successful Grindhouse revivals, The Asylum and the increasingly crazy J-spolitations, it would appear that schlock is on the rise...but "Saint" makes us remember that not all purposefully silly B- movies can be thoroughly entertaining. When over-the-top gore, crazy characters, hilarious dialog and preposterous plots are what make these movies work, "Saint" only nails the preposterous plot, concerning a murderous, zombified St. Nic going on a killing spree through Amsterdam. Typing this out, it sounds like it should be great fun but the fact is that "Saint" is not gory or funny enough to be a successful B-movie.
AD
